| The question of sicification of Buddhism is about how the heterogeneity of Buddhism is acculturated in the Chinese culture,and also about how to achieve roots-finding and self-reliance in China.The most able to reflect the sicification process in Buddhist thoughts is the notion of Nirvana,because its view of the realm of life with a unique transcendent dimension forms a huge tension with Chinese local culture which is based on the Tao to construction of the meaning of life transcendence on the moral integrity of life.Therefore,making the thought of Nirvana as a focus of the study on the sicification of Buddhismis is meaningful.The most representative treatment of this issue,in Buddhist history,is Zhu Daosheng’s thought of Nirvana,who lived in the period between the Late Eastern-Jin and Liusong Dynasties with a reputation named "The sage of Nirvana".His contribution to Chinese Buddhism is extracting the nature of Nirvana from the thought of Nirvana,which is mixed with religious and philosophical issues,and defining its connotation as "Li".Through the construction of the thought of Nirvana,he on the one hand integrated the popular Buddhism thoughts,including "Reality","Single vehicle" and "the Buddha nature",on the other hand raised the thought of "the Buddha nature in everyone" and "sudden enlightment" by using metaphisical method of "Substance-function","Tacit-understanding" and"Syncretism".The influence of his thoughts was not only clarifying the previous study of the Prajna so as to open the direction of mind-natue tradition for the Chinese Buddhism,but also furthering the development of Chinese Buddhism in depth by promoting the study of Prajna to Nirvana.Therefore,based on the thought of Nirvana as question view,the thesis aims at examining the approach employed by Zhu Daosheng to cover the old saying and make the wonderful meaning of Nirvana out,and revealing his theoretical interpretation characteristic,which as a case to response to the theme how Chinese Buddhism achieving roots-finding and self-reliance.Before examining the thought of Nirvana of Zhu Dao-sheng,in light of the close relationship between the world of thoughts and the world of life,this thesis will firstly center on the analysis of the important events of his life,especially the state banquet of the Liusong Dynasty Empire,the debate on siting posture of Buddhist monks in Qihuan Temple,and the relationship with a monk named Huilin to show his super-era and super-society cultural assciation attitude in dealing with Buddhism and the royal power,Yi Xia discernment,secular ethics and Buddhist thoughts and other issues.In view of the above-memtioned attitude,which was from his attention on Li-Ontology,the thesis will further into the study of "Li".As the basis of his thought of Nirvana,his emphasis on "Li" was consistent,and this made his theory of Li full of rich and comprehensive characteristic,that is to say his theory of "Li" not only included "Reality","Single vehicle" and "the Buddha nature",but also focused on the explanation of the nature of "Li",such as uniqueness,omnipresence and immutability.By delving into the Li-Ontology,Zhu Daosheng further expanded the connotation of Nirvana to eternality,nimimitta and natural existence.And through this way,he achieved equaling the nature of Nirvana with life,and secular world with Nirvana realm,which became a key step in the placement of the Buddhist theory of emptiness in Chinese sense of Tao-Ontology.Through the analysis of the internalization of the "Li",Zhu Daosheng further proposed the concept of "Buddha nature-Self" as fundamental basis of Nirvana.He paid particular attention to detailing meaning of Subject and Noumenon of the"Buddha nature-Self",and contructed an unique spiritual practice theory,namely"Sudden Enlightenment to be Buddha".In the construction of the thought of Nirvana,which made the "Li" as hub,the Buddha nature as Subject,and the "Sudden Enlightenment" as action,Zhu Daosheng emphasizd much the mixture of Buddhism and Chinese local culture from the value and methodology level,which was embodied in explanation of the value of"Coherence","Utmost","Truth",and "Permanence" and reference of methods of"Probing the principle for self-realization","Tacit-understanding","Substance-function","Returning to the original root",and "Affirmative interpretation".More importantly,through absorbing the Buddha nature into "Li",he succeeded in realizing the docking of Buddhism and Chinese theory of human nature,and this became the most realistic step in the sense of integration of Buddhism and Chinese local culture. |
